Friday, July 28, 2006

I love doing bread drops during the week. What we try to do is connect with the guest during the week by dropping them a loaf of bread at their home.

It is great. Mostly we have a welcomed and surprised responses. Last night I attempted 7 drops. (I couldn't complete one because security doors in the apartment.) At Paul and Sandy May's house I was greeted with super enthusiasm! They connected with the church a few weeks back at Super Saturday, they have loved it!

They had some friends over and took me in the back yard to meet them. Everyone was friendly and excited. It is so awesome to be around people who just want to know more about Jesus and are pumped to tell their friends! Paul and Sandy, Way to go!

I am just stoked about the next few months. Looking forward to this Sunday morning when I will be speaking on the series Zip It. This week is "Criticism Gone Bad." Use the E invite to invite a friend. This is tag team deal ya know!

Well tomorrow is the day! We have got out water bottles, stickers, and 9 foot banner ready to go. It is going to be blazing hot tomorrow as we try to touch the loves of thousands. There will be all kinds of things happening tomorrow, but we are trying our best to be right in the center of the marketplace.

Just were you would find Jesus, sitting at the well. Talking and sharing his heart. We want to be that kind of servant. We will only be giving out physical water that can only quench the thirst temporarily, but we pray with each water bottle given out it will symbolize the living water they can find at JCFC.

We are definitely outside the box on this one. But I firmly believe that God is in the business of redeeming people as well as events. Pray with us.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Well I met with Heath Bullock today to discuss our new lease at the the office at One Corporate Place. Everything looks great, and we are on track to get in by August 15th. Our attorney will be looking over the lease papers before I sign. Just to keep everything on the up and up!

I had coffee and chatted with Jeff Mullens, the lead guy out at Point of Grace. What an amazing guy to connect with. He has been at PoG since day one, and has been apart of the growth process the whole time. They currently meet in Waukee and run around 2000-2100 in Weekend attendance. They started 10 years ago in a rented facility in West Des Moines.

He really bore his heart to me and I tried to soak up everything he had to say. I left the meeting with some new insight and great ministry ideas for the upcoming future.

They are very open to help us in any way possible. I am going to try to jump in to a few of their staff meetings and glean some insight from their team.

It was a real encouraagement. Great to know that others in this city are really kingdom minded and want to connect as the Church not just on a superficial level.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Starting after August 16th, following Rich Farthing coming to share about Bolovia, my Life Group is taking a hiatus.

We have decided as a group that a short time off is going to be good, and allow us all the be refreshed and start again in Septemeber.

The hook is that is won't be at my house any more for a while. The location is yet to be announced, but we will be going through the Truth Project. It is a DVD curriculm that Mark and Amy Main have been trained to lead. It is going to be awesome. Check out the link.

Our group will be oponed up to anyone who wants to attend. We will have some sign up sheets and registration online coming soon. If we need to we will do it two nights a week.

I challenge everyone to prayerfully consider making thia a part of your fall program.

Well I spent a better part for the day yesterday developing ministry descriptions, and working through what each of our ministries really are for the church. Upon further investigation we have a lot of things going on or in the works right now.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

This is the banner that will be hanging on our tent/booth at the 515 alive event this weekend. We are a corporate sponsor for the event. We have chosen to step outside of the box and do something a bit risky.

One of our core values is "playing it safe is risky." This is probably the "riskest" thing we have done yet. We are the only church that is a sponsor which I really like!

We will also have water bottles with our logo. Lastly we have stickers to match just to give out. The idea is to get people to our website! They are expecting between 7 and 10,000 people ! Awesome!

How important is the foundation or the infrastructure to a building? Paramount. Have you ever seen a building that was leaning or crumpling under the pressure of the building itself.

I know of a man who helped build a building in the DC area. He was a stone mason and was doing some stone work on the building as they were building up. The general rule of thumb at the time was 5 floors of poured concrete need to stay formed up as they continued to build upwards. Well some body got the bright idea that they could go ahead a pull the forms. It seemed strong enough.

After a few days of continued work above the 5th floor, a huge collapse happened and the entire building was left in rubble.

One decision effected the entire support base of the structure leaving it vulnerable and broken. The same if true for a new church. We are still in the building stage. We have come to a few places with in the different ministries we have at the church and feel stable, yet we are still actively building infrastructure.

With out this groundwork and internal workings layed correctly, the whole thing will be shaky and unsteady at best. It is my goal to establish a church that is not just a mediocre place to exist, but a dynamic experiential place of worship where peoples lives are changed for all of time. A place that is impacting the community and effecting the world until Jesus returns.

So ask yourself, "Where do I fit into this mix?" A great question, glad you asked.

You fit in by doing what you are passionate about doing. There are several needs of ministry in the church.

First thing, we all need to understand that ministry is so much more than just the sermon on Sunday. If you love kids and enjoy working with them. Volunteer in Baby Steps Nursery, or Creek Kids once a month or more if you like. If you love video editing lets get in touch and get the ball rolling in that direction. If you have a passion for the arts then lets talk and get you plugged in. Maybe you want desperately to help people feel welcomed and informed on Sundays, then you need to get involved with the First Impressions ministry...

the list goes on.... Maybe I need to post a ministry opportunity list? I will work on that.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Our new church office is scheduled to be ready around the 15th of August. Now I try to be a realist and I know construction workers, and it might be later than that. Anyways whenever we get moved in it will be great!

Pray. August the 15th.

Do we wanna vote on the carpet color? Maybe we can have an all church meeting and decide?

This has been another eventful week. God is so good, we have had great services the past few weeks and have been growing all summer!

Now is the time to really get plugged in at JCFC. We are excited about this summer and the fall schedule.

This weekend starts a new series called Zip It. It will be dealing with how our words effect us and others all around us.

You will be amazed at what Gods word has to say about our words. Speaking of words, when was the last time you used your words to invite someone to church?

Hmm. nervous to do that? Just send your friends and e invite from our home page at www.jordancreek.org The e invite is located in the bottom right corner of page. Soon there will be a new e invite card for every new series.

You can also now subscribe to our weekly podcast of the sermon on sunday. It is a great tool to let someone check out the church before the check out the church.

We are redeeming technology for God's glory. God is in the redeeming business so I dont know maybe we can be like him?

Thursday, July 06, 2006

This Sunday I spoke about our second sermon in our Identity Theft series. We had 62 in service and it was great. I will be posting the notes from the sermon later today. It really is my goal to have them posted every monday! Sorry guys.

The next line under that is the reason I have been away this week is we have spent the holiday weekend redoing our living room. We have painted everything a soft yellow. I installed all new trim, casing, and crown molding. Then we trimmed the window out as well. All white trim, beautiful.

I did however take a couple hours on monday for me to become a lure on the lake. I was doing great at being drug behind the boat but not so great at skiing. I am working on it and will do it the next time....

I have real good understanding of the back side of the boat and my sinus are real clear now. (if you have struggled water skiing you know what I mean)